


Thunder Stone

by Xazz



Series: title coming soon [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Beaches, California, Confessions, Cuddling, Day At The Beach, First Kiss, Fluff, Kissing, Love Confessions, M/M, Magikarp - Freeform, Pikachu - Freeform, Pokemon AU, Raichu - Freeform, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-23 17:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12512840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xazz/pseuds/Xazz
Summary: After a lot of convincing Jack convinces his parents it'll be fine if he spendsoneholiday with his boyfriend and they won't die from neglect. While there Gabe asks if Jack wants to use the old Thunder Stone on his Pikachu and Jack isn't sure how to take that invitation.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this one is… way longer than I intended. I’m sure you don’t mind lols. This is still all Kathy’s fault. She isn’t even sorry either!!
> 
> Spanish translation provided by my friend Billy. My poor translator who didn’t understand the concept of a basket you put food in because he’s a huge derp. English translations available in the bottom notes.
> 
> also, before you ask; self-driving cars. That’s all. It’s 2076, don’t question it.

It had taken an _obscene_ amount of convincing for Jack to convince to let him not only not come home for Thanksgiving but also go visit his long-distance boyfriend in California. They knew Jack had been friends with Gabe for _years_ but they’d never met him and Jack was an only child. His mother was nervous about it. She was even more nervous because Gabe’s parents had offered to buy the plane ticket like somehow being so generous was an indication of foul play. His mom had spent about two hours talking with Gabe’s parents which had finally sealed the deal.

Jack was, in a word, thrilled.

He’d never met Gabe in real life either and he was excited about seeing him. Even if the plane ride was soooo boring. You weren’t allowed to have pokemon out on the plane either so he couldn’t even hang out with Lucky or Fish Food. Fish Food was Jack’s other favorite despite being a completely useless pokemon. Fish Food was the first pokemon Jack had ever caught when he was a kid. They were a good, chill, Magikarp that Jack thought would like looking out the window of an airplane.He rarely brought Fish Food out. There wasn’t usually enough water around for him to swim anywhere and he ended up looking like a stupid splashing Magikarp in shallow fountains around campus.

He ended up just playing his Switch for most of the flight because he was bored. He never usually played it. He preferred going outside than playing video games. His parents had picked the ancient system up at a thrift shop on a lark because they’d liked the games when they’d been his age. So now he had a Switch and was playing a weird farming game apparently his mom had been obsessed with as a teenager. It was mostly mindless entertainment. Then, before he knew it, they were coming in to land and Jack put his face against the window to look out at LA coming into view.

“Woah,” he said. He lived in a city. Had grown up out in the suburbs of Bloomington that were nearly the country and was no stranger to cities. Or that was what he thought. Bloomington didn’t have a lot of big buildings. It had a handful at best. The part of LA that was tall skyscrapers was probably the same land area as all of Bloomington and LA stretched out from there as a patchwork of neighborhoods and roads stitched together with swooping highways and traffic lights. It was daylight out and Jack was impressed. He could only imagine how amazing LA looked at night.

Then all too soon they were landing. Jack turned his phone back on and once it had connected to a tower it just exploded with texts. All from Gabe and his mom. His mom’s were nattering, worry full, texts to make sure he called her as soon as he landed and she hoped he had a good flight. Gabe’s sounded so excited they were practically bursting. Jack called his mom to tell her he was so sorry but his plane had crashed and he was now dying in a cornfield somewhere in Wyoming. That made her laugh at the least. He assured her he was fine and he’d call her later when he was settled in. Then he texted Gabe telling him he’d landed. His phone exploded again with Gabe telling him where he and his family were waiting to greet him and if he had checked any bags.

Jack did the shuffle to get out of the plane and after making a detour to the bathroom to make sure he didn’t look like garbage thanks to his three am flight he headed to where he thought Gabe was waiting for him. LAX was a huge airport but he just followed the signs. Jack wasn’t the only lost looking person at the airport but he just knew he had to follow the signs. Eventually, he made it through LAX with only minor confusion about where he was going and after consulting a map was confident he was almost there.

He started to get nervous when he began the walk down the hallway that led to the rest of the airport. He hoped he was in the right place. Jack didn’t know why he was worried because he saw Gabe as he walked out into the outside part of the airport. He was with his mom and dad and two of his sisters. They were looking for him but Jack got about half way to them before Gabe saw him and immediately broke away from his family and went and hugged Jack tightly. Jack smiled and hugged him back.

It hadn’t occurred to him until he was doing it that his boyfriend would smell like things. And Gabriel smelled _nice_. Like nice cologne. Did he always wear it or was it just because he wanted to make a good first impression. Jack wasn’t going to complain about that. He liked that his boyfriend smelled nice for him. Then Gabe let him go and was just grinning from ear to ear, “You made it!”

“I did,” Jack was beaming right back.

“C’mon,” with one hand he grabbed Jack’s hand and led him over to his family. Jack was introduced to his parents, Rosa and Josh and his big sisters who were visiting from college, Michelle and Ariel. He shook Josh’s hand but Rosa gave him a _big_ mom hug that was pretty awesome. They went and god Jack’s check bag and Jack followed them to the car. Rosa said they were going out for breakfast. “That's the only reason Ariel and Michelle came over,” he told Jack quietly, “free food.” That made Jack laugh into his hand and nodded. He knew how strong the siren song of free food was for a college kid.

Breakfast was fun. It was some Latin breakfast taco place and by the end of it Jack was exhausted. He was a bit jet lagged and had been up basically all night except for a short nap on the plane. Rosa noticed and hustled her family back home. Jack was surprised by Gabe's house. It was big and really nice. Like almost a villa sort of house. He knew Gabe's parents both had well-paying jobs but he never connected that to them having a house like this. Though it made sense of course since they had five kids, all except Gabe being girls. And Gabe was the baby of his family. They needed a big house for their big family. Rosa showed Jack to one of the guest rooms and asked if Jack needed anything. He just said a nap and he'd be good.

Jack kicked off his shoes and let Lucky out. He was so used to sleeping with Lucky around that he had trouble sleeping without her. “Pii? Chu?” Lucky ran around the room exploring it as Jack took off his jeans to lay down on the bed.

“I told you, we're visiting Gabe for Thanksgiving,” Jack said.

“Pika!!” Lucky seemed to remember now and raced back over to him and crawled up him to rub her cheek against his. “Piiika pii piikkka pii!” Jack just grinned and gave her a belly rub before crawling under the blanket. As he did he realized… the AC was on. It was November. It occurred to him that he was in southern California and it didn't actually get cold down here in the winter. How bizarre.

Either way, he was so tired. Lucky realized he was going to take a nap and clambered onto his pillow to sleep with him. Jack fell asleep hard and was woken up by someone touching him. He opened his eyes with protest. “Hey, I figured you wouldn't want to screw your sleep schedule up too much,” Gabe said.

“Uhhgmmm. How long was I asleep?”

“About an hour and a half,” Gabe said.

With a groan, Jack sat up and rubbed his hair. “Right,” he yawned widely. “Sorry I basically showed up and passed out.”

Gabe chuckled, “It's okay. I know you had a long, early, flight.” Jack nodded as Lucky crawled into his lap and under his shirt. Jack had picked the three am flight so he could come in early in the morning and have more time to spend with Gabe. “I had some stuff planned if you're interested.”

“Yes, sure,” Jack yawned and cupped Lucky against his belly as he got up.

“Jack!”

“What?” Jack looked down. He wasn't wearing pants. “Oh shut up. I'm wearing underwear. You've seen my dick don't act so shocked by underpants,” he rolled his eyes at his boyfriend and grabbed his pants from the floor. He pulled Lucky out from his shirt and put her on his shoulder so he could pull his pants on properly.

“Yeah but not at my parents’ house,” Gabe bemoaned him.

“You'll live somehow,” Jack rolled his eyes. “Okay, where are we going?” he asked and grabbed his backpack. He took most of the stuff out of it except for his pokeballs and some other basic stuff.

Gabe sighed and got off the bed. “I figured I'd show you around LA. Then later me and my friends were going to go to the beach.”

“You mean the shore?” Jack asked.

Gabe laughed. “No Jack, as in like, the ocean beach.”

“Oh… right,” Jack had forgotten. He'd grown up in a landlocked state. The ocean was a mostly foreign concept to him. “Yeah, sure.”

“You bring swim trunks like I told you to?”

“Yeah,” Jack nodded.

“Good. Mom said we just needed to be home for dinner and tomorrow to help with the cooking for Thanksgiving but otherwise we're free to do whatever.”

“Okay. Sounds great,” Jack beamed at him. Lucky rubbed against the side of his head happily. She was happy he was happy. “Wherever you wanna take me. I am here to have fun,” he laughed.

Gabe grinned. “Great. Let's go.” He hesitated and then grabbed Jack's hand, leading him out of the house to his car. Not quite a junker it was still a bit older than new. Not nearly as nice as some of the other cars in the driveway. “So you just keep Lucky out all the time?” Gabe asked as they got into the car. It was stifling with an all black interior in the autumn sun.

“For the most part. Unless I need to go somewhere she isn't allowed. But she's small enough that most places don't mind,” Jack said as she climbed into his lap like he'd trained her when he got into a car. He used his hand like a seat belt around her body as he put his own on. “Don't you?”

“Mmmm. I wish. All of mine are kinda too big for most stores. They don't like when I bring them out and go inside. The way to do it is definitely a small cute one.”

Jack chuckled. “Well if you feel left out-” he reached into his bag and pulled Princesa’s love ball out. He opened it into his lap. “Princesa, look who it is,” he turned her towards Gabe.

“Kyu!!!” Princesa cried and launched herself at Gabe, wrapping some of her ribbon-like limbs around Gabe’s arm and shoulder.

“Looks like she missed you,” Jack said with a grin and leaned over to untangle her limbs so Gabe could get the car going.

“She and Lucky been getting along?” Gabe asked and finally was able to put the address into the navigator. The steering wheel sank into the console and started backing out of the driveway.

“Mhm. They’re best buds, right girls?” he asked. In his lap, Princesa chirped and Lucky cooed happily. “Though Princesa isn’t as good as Lucky at staying out of the way sometimes but she’s figuring it out.”

“Oh yeah?” The car was starting to drive down the road now.

“Yeah. Sometimes gets underfoot by accident. I had to take her to my mom’s a week after I got her because my roommate ripped her tail off by accident while walking around the dorm. I’ve never seen him so apologetic it was kinda shocking.”

“Oh no. But she’s got it back on?” Gabe leaned around a little.

“Yeah. It’s fixed,” Jack plucked at Princesa’s tail to wave it at Gabe.

“Good,” Gabe nodded.

“So where are we going?” Jack asked. He put Princesa back into her ball. She wasn’t as well behaved as Lucky around him and Gabe in a car and he didn’t want something to happen by accident. Lucky was just calmly nestled in his arm.

“I just gave it a route. So nowhere in particular. If you wanna stop somewhere just let me know,” Gabe said. “This is more a sightseeing trip than anything.”

“Oooh, okay,” Jack nodded. “And then the beach?”

“Yeah.”

“Who are we going to see?”

“Some of my friends,” Gabe shrugged. “A couple of them basically live in the surf so they are basically always going ‘if you wanna hang out you gotta come by the beach’. So we’ll drive around and swing by the house again to change and put like five gallons of sunscreen on that pasty white skin of yours-

“Gabe! I’m not _that_ white,” Jack groaned.

“Could’a fooled me,” Gabe said with a shit-eating grin plastered all over his face.

Jack huffed and looked out the window at the passing scenery. Gabe put some music on and they just enjoyed the silence and music and scenery. LA was amazing and this was probably the best way to see it. Not even in a tour bus that had to go along a predetermined route, just in the passenger seat of a car of a native who knew all the good roads and back roads to get around. He let Lucky get up a bit so she could see too and she was as interested in the new place as Jack was. Gabe just let him enjoy the view and played on his phone while the car drove them around. They drove through different neighborhoods. Nothing like Beverly Hills or anything. Just middle-class neighborhoods full of a bunch of mixed ethnicities including K-Town which apparently was like half of LA. It was a different dynamic here than in Bloomington. There weren’t a lot of African Americans or Asians in Bloomington. Lots of white people, lots of Latinos. Jack liked seeing all the different types of people and the way they dressed and the different pokemon they had. Everyone used pokemon in LA, for all sorts of things. And there were so many different types.

“Stop the car!” Jack said at once.

Gabe started next to him and pressed the brake. “What? What’s the matter?”

“That food truck has a Snorlax! I wanna take a selfie with it.”

“What? Jack, it’s just a Snorlax.”

“ _Just_? Gabe Snorlax’s range doesn't extend into Indiana.”

“Oh,” Gabe said like it had never occurred to him that Jack had never seen a lot of the pokemon he took for granted. “I’ll circle around and you can get out.” Jack nodded and Gabe took control long enough to get them around the block and parked as close to the food cart as he could.

Jack practically jumped out of the car and went over to the food truck. It sold fish tacos in three varieties and some sides and Mexican sodas. The guys in the cart were very Latino looking and talking to each other in Spanish when Jack approached the cart. There was a large goldfish shaped tip jar around which a strangely colored Meowth was curled, sleeping. It was almost brown with very dark socks and tail curl with an amber colored coin-like growth on its forehead. On the tip jar, it said ‘I accept scritches and tips’. Jack smiled. The guys who worked this truck must know that that Meowth would stay there all day sleeping to have a sign on it specific to it.

“Hola,” Jack said to get the men in the truck’s attention.

“¡Hola!” One of the men leaned against the inner counter of the truck. He had a very thick accent even with the Spanish. Jack was sure he could speak English just fine but he didn’t want to look like a shitty white college kid showing up wanting to take a selfie with their Snorlax.

“Me estaba preguntando, ¿me podría tomar una foto con tu Snorlax?” he asked.

“Eh? ¿Tubs? Solo le gusta tomarse fotos cuando le dan de comer,” they told him. “De otra manera se pone de mal humor.”

Right. Of course. “Hmmm.” Well, it was lunch. “Espera,” and he went back to the car where Gabe was waiting. Gabe rolled down the window. “You want a fish taco? It’s close to lunch.”

“You wanna eat here for lunch?” Gabe asked.

“Snack,” Jack said.

“Sure. I’ll have a fish taco— hey, Jack lemme give you some money.”

“Save it, it’s not that expensive,” Jack waved back at him as he went back to the food truck. He looked over the menu. “Tendré Twosies,” he said, “con extra cilantro en uno y ¿me podría dar dos limones extra?”

“Por supuesto, serán siete dólares,” the guy said, writing on a pad and handing it back to the guy making the food. Jack handed over the money. “¿De dónde eres, muchacho? Tienes un acento fuerte,” they asked, curious but teasing.

“Oh, soy de Indiana,” Jack smiled widely.

“¡Oye! ¡Oye, José! ¿Escuchaste eso? Este tipo es de Indiana – “

“¿Qué? Tonterías”

“Nope, sí soy de ahí” Jack said brightly. “Entonces… ¿me puedo tomar una selfie con tu Snorlax?”

“Para tu tren, amigo. Tubs solo se toma fotos por un precio. Sus favoritos son las canastas de maíz.” And just like that, a basket made of what Jack had to assume was made of some sort of edible corn fiber with a layer of rice paper on the bottom was offered to him with his tacos on it.

“Ohhh,” Jack said, understanding. Snorlax wasn’t just a mascot; it was their garbage can. Cool!

“Jack, what’s taking so long?” Gabe asked, finally coming up.

“Here, eat your taco,” Jack shoved his fish taco at Gabe.

“You from Indiana too?” the man in the truck asked Gabe.

“No. I’m from LA,” Gabe said. “One of us has to have class,” he took a bite of the taco and wandered away from Jack to look at the Snorlax.

“Es un amor con patas, ¿no es así?” the cashier asked Jack.

“Sip, por eso lo quiero,” Jack said as bright as a ray of sunshine Gabe always complained about him being.

“¿Ah sí? ¿Es tu novio?” they asked.

“Yeap!”

“Pft, buena suerte con ese, amigo.” Jack just snickered at that.

“What are you talking about? You talking shit, Jack?” Gabe called from where Tubs was, mostly done with his taco by now.

“Me? Nevvver,” Jack said in a sing-song voice back. He took a bite of his own taco finally. It tasted like an orgasm. It was _so_ good and perfectly cooked with just enough seasoning and lemon. “Gracias. Es realmente asombroso,” he said around the food in his mouth and gave the cashier and the cook a thumbs up before wandering over to Gabe.

“I don’t know why you want a picture with this thing. It’s not even cute,” Gabe said lowly.

“Don’t be salty just because you were left out of the conversation,” Jack teased him. Gabe might have been a Latino but he didn’t know _any_ Spanish beyond a few simple phrases. His sisters knew a bit more apparently but they all were bad at speaking it. Gabe just stuffed the rest of his taco into his mouth and folded his arms moodily. Jack quickly finished his own taco.

On Tubs there was a sign that said ‘I love taco baskets. Place on my belly’ in English, Spanish, and Korean. He wondered how many baskets the truck went through a day to be able to feed a Snorlax. As he thought that several more people showed up to order. He checked the time. It was _just_ barely the start of lunch and Jack realized that this place was probably really popular in this neighborhood. If he wanted this selfie before it got too busy he’d have to do it quick. Tubs was leaning on a padded ramp. Jack shoved his phone at Gabe, “Take my picture,” he said excitedly. Gabe just rolled his eyes a little but with a fond smile did take his phone to take some pictures. Jack put the basket on Tubs’s big belly.

Jack’s eyes widened with delight when Tubs roused himself and sat up a bit to grab the basket off his stomach. Tubs took a bite out of the basket, it crunched in his mouth, his big teeth grinding it up. “Hey, Tubs, selfie stick!” the cashier called out of the truck like he was telling his pokemon a move to make in battle. He’d already moved through the people in line and was waiting for the food to be made to hand out. The Snorlax looked at the taco truck then down at Jack. Then Tubs leaned down and put his big head down next to Jack’s and Lucky’s. If possible Jack smiled even wider.

“Okay, that’s a good picture. Two giant sleepy heads in one shot,” Gabe teased him, taking several pictures. Then Tubs leaned back and away, tossed the rest of Jack’s basket into his mouth and laid back down on his ramp to immediately go back to sleep.

Jack jumped over to Gabe and took his phone back. Gabe had taken like thirty pictures. “Thanks,” Jack said, still smiling so widely.

Gabe blinked at him a bit like he was stunned by Jack. “Y-yeah,” he said. “So uh, wanna go get some real lunch?”

“Yeah,” Jack could not stop smiling. He was so happy! He never thought he’d get to see a Snorlax. As they walked back to the car Jack dropped a dollar in the tip jar, he’d almost forgotten, and scratched the Meowth under the chin. The cashier thanked him and they got into the car. “So that taco made me realize I’m suddenly starving. Lunch sounds like a great idea,” Jack said.

“Okay, anywhere in particular you wanna go?”

“Nope. Take me somewhere yummy!”

“Man I can’t believe you got so hype off a Snorlax,” Gabe chuckled and put a new destination into the navigator.

Jack looked through his new pictures of Snorlax and sent one to his mom and dad so they could see it and sent it to his roommate and a few of his friends too. Gabe took him to a good place that did a Mexican twist on Southern food that Jack was _about_. He’d never enjoyed grits before but holy fuck they were the most amazing grits he’d ever had in his _life_. The catfish was also to die for and Jack didn’t even _like_ catfish but he had some of Gabe’s and Jack was into it. Lucky wasn’t allowed in the restaurant, which was fair. Furry or goopy pokemon usually weren’t allowed in restaurants.

When they finished lunch Gabe took them back to the house. Jack changed into his swim trunks and lathered up with a lot of sunscreen. Despite what he’d told Gabe he really _was_ pretty white and usually during the summer developed a _hell_ of a farmer’s tan. He left the guest bedroom smelling like he’d taken a bath in sunscreen. Gabe told his parents where they were going for the rest of the day and they’d be home for dinner. The drive to the beach was a comfortable quiet with the sound of the music going and Jack watching all the cool scenery go by.

At the beach, he met Gabe's friends from college and some old high school friends. They all had their Pokemon out at the beach and Jack popped some of his out to play. Everyone left their stuff under a big, blue, beach umbrella guarded by a Houndoom named Wishbone where the bone structure on its back had formed around its chest instead. Jack took the time to take Fish Food out of his ball and let him do some real swimming in the ocean. It got super real when one of Gabe's friends showed up from the waves with his Gyarados, aptly named Lunch. Fish Food was amazed by the Gyrados.

Gabe's friends were super nice. Once each of them had separately made the same variation of ‘wow you're real? We thought he was lying when he said you were going out now’. Jack just took it in stride. Two of Gabe's friends were engaged and when one wasn't out surfing on literally a Mantine (and Jack thought Gabe was an extra mother fucker) they were giving each other the ugliest lovey-dovey eyes and kisses. Several of Gabe's friends surfed but only one of them used his Pokemon like a surfboard. By the end of the day Jack was well integrated into the group and had learned that Gabe was part of an exclusive group within it. That was the Scary Looking Guys With Sylveons club. The guy engaged to the over the top surfer was the one with a Sylveon.

Eventually, Gabe said that he and Jack had to go or his mother would kill them both if they missed dinner. Jack waved goodbye to his new friends and followed Gabe back to his car. All of Jack's Pokemon had passed out from running around and excitement by now and only Gabe's Haunter Gordito was still awake and was clinging to Gabe's shoulders on the walk back.

“They're so high energy. How the hell do you handle them?” Jack asked as they got into the car with a groan. Jack was well and truly worn out himself.

“I only see them like once a week you kidding me?” Gabe put his house into the navigator.” I can't handle their lifestyle either. Malik literally goes down to the beach every day to surf. I have no idea how he has that energy or how his fiancé tolerates it.”

“I don't know,” Jack agreed as the car headed for Gabe's house. “Fish Food really liked Lunch, though.”

“Heh, yeah,” Gabe said.

They rode back to Gabe's in easy silence. The longer Jack thought about hanging out at the beach with Gabe's friends the more annoyed he started to get. Altair and Malik had seemed really happy together and while not a gross PDA couple were very tactile and sweet the entire time without being suffocating like some straight couples were. The other guys talked about their boyfriends or girlfriends too. It had been kinda not talked about it at all after the jokes were said between him and Gabe which after seeing how casual everyone with their feelings for their partners really annoyed him.

“Hey, Gabe?”

“Yeah?” Gabe was looking in his phone.

“How come you haven't kissed me at all today?”

Gabe started and looked up at Jack. “What?” he very nearly squeaked.

“You heard me,” Jack said.

“Well I… thought it would be kinda weird to just spring it on you,” Gabe grimaced.

“You could have asked.”

“I could have,” Gabe said like the fucking weenie he was. Jack gave him a pointed look. It dawned on Gabe. “Can I kiss you?”

“I'd like you to,” Jack said. Gabe leaned across the car and pressed his lips gently against Jack's. Jack smiled when he did. It was a very sweet kiss that was all soft lips and the smell of the ocean. “That was nice. You should do that more,” Jack said like a smart ass.

“Not while we're driving,” Gabe scoffed and settled back in his seat.

“Okay,” Jack said with a slight roll of his eyes but was still smiling.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is very cute, soft, and sweet ;u;

Jack didn't appreciate how fucking huge Gabe's extended family was until the house was filled with people. There were at least three aunts cooking in the kitchen with an abuela overseeing them, a dozen kids of various ages from his and Gabe's age to babies playing, a variety of cousins and a smattering of uncles who had parked in front of the TV watching football. As an only child where most of the family didn't live close enough to visit every year Jack was overwhelmed by the amount of people that were around pretty quick. A packed lecture hall he was fine with but the suffocating laughter and talk filled house full of Latinos and whatever the hell Josh’s family was had Jack seeking refuge outside in the heat of late November LA.

There was a pool in the back of the Reyes’ residence in the middle of the patio and a couple of the little kids were swimming it under the eye of… someone’s uncle. He wasn't sure which one. They were pretty quiet and just happily playing with Fish Food and not too much noise or yelling. Jack was sitting at the edge of the pool with his legs in. He’d let Fish Food swim in the pool too. He’d looked to make sure pool chlorine wouldn’t be harmful to him and it said that as long as he didn’t _live_ in a pool and Jack washed him off him fresh water he’d be fine. Fish Food was having the kids follow him around and that was keeping them quiet. Jack also had Lucky and Chances out. Lucky was on Jack’s shoulder teasing Chances with her tail and the little Phantump kept trying to catch it.

Gabe found him there. He came over and sat next to him cross-legged. “Hey. You okay out here?” he asked.

“Yeah. Just kinda loud in the house,” Jack shrugged.

“Yeaaaah, Latino families are loud. I should have warned you. Sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize. A lot of my friends are Latino, I know how they are. I just don’t go over to their houses for holidays,” Jack grinned a little, tiredly. “Probably for this exact reason.”

“I asked my mom if she’d get mad if we left for a little while since you didn’t seem to be having as much fun. You wanna go somewhere?”

“Like where?”

“I dunno, there’s a nice park a few blocks away. We could walk. Be quieter there than here.”

“Mmm. Yeah, that sounds good. Lucky that’s enough,” he told his Pikachu. Lucky perked up and cooed at him and turned around on his shoulder to put her tail away.

“I didn’t know you had a Phantump,” Gabe said as Jack leaned forward to splash his hand in the pool a bit.

“Yeah, I don’t… really share it. People get weird about Phantumps in Indiana. They’re super superstitious about them,” Jack said as Fish Food swam up to him at the edge of the pool along with the handful of kids he’d been playing with. “Hey buddy, you wanna come with me and Gabe to the park?”

“Awwww,” one of the kids said. “Can’t he stay Mr. Jack?”

“Well if he wants to he can,” Jack said. Fish Food was just looking at him with wide eyes, almost confusion. “Or do you wanna stay and play with the kids?”

“Kharp, karrrrp,” Fish Food waggled in the water and flopped back under the surface.

“Okay, he can stay,” Jack said.

“Yay!” the kids cheered and went back to chasing Fish Food in the pool.

Gabe was already on his feet and offered Jack a hand. Jack put Chances back into his ball before grabbing Gabe’s hand and letting Gabe pull him to his feet. “Go put on some shoes, I’ll meet you out front.” Jack nodded and went back into the house just as all the men yelled because something had happened on the TV. Jack liked watching the football as much as the next generic blonde American guy but there was _too much_ going on in this place right now. He went to the guest room, dried off his legs, and put on some socks and shoes. Gabe was waiting for him like he said. “There’s an ice cream place by the park, we could go,” he added.

“Man, park and ice cream, what is this, some sort of date?” Jack teased him as they walked down the driveway.

Gabe scoffed, “You complaining I’m taking you on dates now? First complaining about kisses, now dates. What’s next?”

“I’m sure I’ll think of something,” Jack gave him a cheeky smirk and that made Gabe laugh. “I assume the park allows pokemon?”

“Yeah. It’s just a field with some trees basically,” Gabe said.

“Please tell me this ice cream place is just a truck.”

“Mmm, it is,” Gabe said and Jack laughed.

“Shitty kiss rate and shitty dates. You’ll be lucky if we’re still dating when this trip is over,” Jack teased him even as he grabbed Gabe’s hand. Gabe leaned over and kissed his cheek.

The walk wasn’t that long and the sun wasn’t _too_ oppressive. Way hotter than Indiana where all the trees were either leafless or brown and gold but now that he’d been here a few days he knew it wasn’t _too_ hot. Still warm enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt out though, which was pretty awesome honestly. The park was nice. A little neighborhood park with a field dotted with some large trees with a small playground that was basically two swings, a slide, and two spring pokemon riders. Across the park was an ice cream truck with a Vanillish on the side. The park was empty for the most part except for some joggers. They went and found a place in the shade of one of the trees and let the rest of their pokemon out so they could play in the park.

Jack never got tired of seeing Mr. Doom and Gloom’s actual collection of pokemon. For a guy who listened to way too much alt-rock and grunge music nearly all of Gabe’s pokemon were pastel. Josh worked for a company that had part of its holdings in Hawaii so went over there often on business and liked bringing back local pokemon to his kids you couldn’t get on the continent. So Gabe had some really rare pokemon like Steenee, a Lurantis, and a Salandit. The rest of his pokemon were a Kirlia, a Sylveon with two ear bows, and his Haunter who might as well have been a bubbly fairy type-like pokemon to go with the rest of them. Gordito was the reason people thought the Gastly line were just dead Clafables because he was so huggy and clingy and loved giving happy licks to anyone he deemed a friend. Which happened to be Jack and before he’d even finish taking his own out he found himself attacked by an overly friendly Haunter who was _thrilled_ to see him and wrapped his big hands around Jack.

“H-hey Gordito. Thank goodness you’re a ghost of you’re be heavy as shit,” Jack said, a bit strained by being smothered by the Haunter.

“Okay Gordito, that’s enough, he’s happy to see you too,” Gabe said and pulled the Haunter off Jack. Thank goodness.

“Thanks,” Jack said and let out his last two pokemon, Princesa and his Pidgetto named Ace. He sat down in the shade and kicked off his sneakers. He wasn’t planning on getting up for a while and being at a park with no shoes was way better than with. “Lucky, keep an eye on Princesa,” Jack told Lucky who nodded enthusiastically even as Princesa was looking around to explore. Ace had immediately flown up into the tree to keep watch or whatever and his Growlithe Neapolitan (he’d meant to name him Napoleon but he’d been ten and had forgotten the difference) was sniffing around the tree, investigating. Gabe’s Sylveon, Rey, Kirlia, Dazzle, and Steenee, Anastasia, had decided to play with Lucky and Princesa and seemed to be playing tag. Kimmy the Lurantis and Razzle the Salandit were taking very different approaches to enjoying the weather with Razzle flopping belly down on the grass in the sun and Kimmy elegantly kneeling in the light. Gordito was, of course, clinging to Gabe.

“I swear he’s got separation anxiety,” Jack said to Gabe with the Haunter hovering over his shoulder.

“Nah. He just loves me. No Phantump?” he asked and sat with Jack.

“He gets scared easily. He’s kinda new and I don’t like stressing him out,” Jack frowned a little.

“So is that why I didn’t know about him? He’s new?”

“I said I don’t really talk about him. Why? You upset I didn’t tell you I now have more ghost pokemon than you, you edge lord?” Jack teased him.

Gabe chuckled. “No. I just like knowing who your friends are,” Gabe said. “So long as I’m your favorite scary boy,” he teased and leaned over to Jack to kiss him.

Jack grinned when Gabe kissed him. “You are, no competition,” he promised him. He liked Gabe’s kisses. They were all very sweet and soft and gave Jack butterflies.

“Good,” Gabe said against his mouth, still kissing Jack softly and cupped one side of his face. They spent a good couple minutes just kissing before Jack laid back on the grass with a content groan. “I’m glad you got to visit,” Gabe said.

Jack grinned, “Me too. My mom _did not_ want to let that happen though, trust me.”

“I know. My mom told me. She sounds so anxious all the time,” Gabe leaned down in the grass next to Jack.

“Only about me. I’m her baby,” Jack gave Gabe a cheeky grin. “She’s usually pretty chill otherwise. And I’ve never been this far from home before. She’s literally never had to deal with me not being an hour or so away. So yeah, she was a little anxious about me coming across the country.”

“Well, I’m glad you did,” Gabe leaned over to him and kissed him again.

“Me too. You going to get us ice cream?”

“Yeah,” Gabe nodded and got up. Gordito stayed with Jack and he pet him. As Gabe walked across the park the pokemon playing tag decided to follow Gabe him and ran around him happily. Jack watched with a smile in the corners of his mouth.

While Gabe was coming back Razzle skittered over to Jack. “Hey,” Jack said and scratched the back of their head at their happy flapping hood. Jack wasn’t sure of Razzle’s gender.

“Dit dit dit dit,” Razzle cooed at Jack’s attention. Neapolitan decided he’d done enough sniffing around the few trees around, pissed on some of them, and also showed up to hang out with Jack. Jack lifted his head up a little and Neapolitan came right up behind him to act as a fluffy pillow. Between the two of them Jack missed when Gabe showed up.

“Okay pretty boy, sit up so you don’t drop the ice cream all over your face,” Gabe said when he arrived and looked like his pockets were stuffed with other things.

“Yeah, but if I did would you clean it up?” Jack asked, practically giving Gabe bedroom eyes.

Gabe’s brown skin darkened a little. “Ah- uh… Just sit up,” Gabe said awkwardly and Jack sat up to take his drumstick.

“And if everyone’s big pleading eyes are any indication they sold poke treats at the trust too,” Jack said.

“Are you kidding? Lucky practically stole the money out of my wallet for treats,” Gabe sat down next to him after emptying his pockets.

“That sounds like her,” Jack said and grabbed her before she could make off with one of the plastic wrapped treats and put her in his lap. She whined up at him and he just left her have a few licks of his ice cream which made her happy. Jack checked the types Gabe had bought. There was a bit of everything. Jack used his teeth to open one of the packages and gave the bar inside to Neopolitan. Lucky complained. “Yeah yeah you’re gonna get some too,” Jack said. Ace came down from the tree for a treat and even Kimmy agreed to grace everyone with her presence and took a few treats as well.

Once everyone had had their treats they got up and ran off again to play except for Kimmy who went back to sit in the sun. Even Razzle and Ace. Neapolitan stayed where he was and Jack finished his ice cream before laying back down on his soft Growlithe. Gabe played some music from his phone and finally kicked off his shoes and laid down on his stomach next to Jack. “You ever think about evolving Neo and Lucky?” he asked Jack.

“Hmm?” Jack looked at him. “Stones are expensive. I couldn’t afford to probably until after college,” Jack said.

“Hmmm. Do you want to evolve them?”

“Well, it is nice that they’re both small. Dorms don’t allow big pokemon in them. Neopolitan wouldn’t be allowed out of his ball as an Arcanine.”

“What about Lucky? Raichu isn’t that big.”

Jack frowned a little. “I don’t know… I couldn’t just _make_ her evolve. But that won’t be for a while. Like I said, I can’t afford stones even if I wanted to evolve her.” He hoped that was the end to this conversation. The process of using a stone on his pokemon gave him a lot of anxiety. What if they didn’t like it? At least his other pokemon evolved naturally. Lucky and Neapolitan were a big commitment when doing so might not be something they’d ever naturally end up doing if they didn’t run into Jack. As it was wild Raichu were incredibly rare in Indiana and there hadn’t been a report of wild Arcanine in over two hundred years.

“Yeah, of course. But if you wanted to, you could.”

“I just said-

“I’d get you one,” Gabe said.

“… Come again?”

“If you wanted to evolve Lucky I’d get you a thunder stone. My parents gave me and my sisters a suit of stones for our Eevees. They used the fire and water stones but my other sisters decided they wanted Espeons and Leafeon so we just have a thunder stone. I asked them about it. They said you could use it if you wanted. No one else is going to use it.”

Jack stared at him. “Uh… I don’t know,” he said weakly.

“Well, you don’t have to decide now. I just wanted to offer it since we have one. You should talk about it with Lucky for sure but Raichu are good pokemon. And shit one of us might as well have a fully evolved pokemon-

That made Jack laugh. “You have a Sylveon,” Jack protested around his smile.

“Yeah, but I didn’t try for it. I just loved Rey so much he evolved. I was gonna use the thunder stone actually, I think Jolteon is pretty cool but,” he shrugged. “Rey had other plans.”

“Mmm,” Jack said but felt the usual creeping anxiety about evolving Lucky. He’d had her since she was a little Pichu and she’d been a Pikachu for over a decade. How was he supposed to ask her to just… turn into something else? Maybe she’d want to? “What song is this?” he asked to get off the topic of evolving his Pikachu and Growlithe.

They stayed out in the park for a while. At one point Jack put his shoes back on to go play with their pokemon before the heat got to him and he crawled back into the shade with Gabe. Once Jack wasn’t sweating so bad they put everyone back in their balls and headed back to Gabe’s. When they arrived the festivities were in full swing and food was starting to be served. The children were wrangled and everyone served themselves before sitting at the big folding tables that had been set up outside. Jack sat next to Gabe at the not kids table but not the adult table. Josh said grace and then everyone dug in.

Jack was used to traditional Thanksgiving food for Thanksgiving like turkey and cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes and gravy. And yes there was some of that but there was more Mexican food. There were tamales, more varieties and fixings for tacos than Jack knew what to do with, elotes preparados (which Jack just left alone. He had quite enough corn in Indiana), carne asada, and fajitas to go along with more American food like potatoes made three ways, home made cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, gravy, cornbread, and stuffing. Jack literally didn’t know where all this food had come from or where the hell it was going to go. It seemed like too much food for even this big family to eat. Of course, the point of Thanksgiving was to make so much food you were eating it for the next week.

Jack ended up in conversation with one of Gabe’s cousins who also didn’t speak any Spanish and looked about as pale as Jack did. They were pretty interested in Jack and who he was and how he’d met his cousin and what he was doing and Jack got exhausted real quick by all the small talk. Eventually he managed to eat himself into something resembling a food coma and wandered into his room with the intention of sleeping it off. Gabe ended up coming in with him and they sprawled on the bed together, Gabe with his hand around Jack and under his shirt against his chest. Jack was looking forward to cuddling with his boyfriend and taking that nap when his phone went off and he had to talk with his mom for half an hour and wish her a good Thanksgiving and yes of course the Reyes’s were being good hosts and yes there had been _so_ much food and he’d talk to her later he needed to sleep off all that food he’d just eaten and yes he loved her too.

“So, normally I sleep with Lucky but I guess you’re an acceptable substitute,” Jack told Gabe smugly. Gabe still had his arm up Jack’s shirt and was toying with some of the soft hair of his happy trail.

“Thank god you’re cute, Jackie, cause you’re real annoying,” Gabe grumbled without heat and leaned up a bit to give Jack a soft peck on the lips. Jack just grinned. Gabe then put his head on Jack’s shoulder, pressed up against Jack’s side, while Jack slept on his back, one arm around Gabe. Jack wasn’t sure how long they slept for but they were woken sometime later by a knock on the door.

“Jack, Gabi, dessert’s gonna be served now,” Rosa called.

“Coming,” Gabe called back. More like groaned loudly. His mom left. “You hungry?”

“Not really,” Jack said and patted his stomach. It was still full and bulged outward from all the food he’d eaten. “But dessert. What’d they make?”

“Fuck, I dunno, could be anything,” Gabe yawned and sat up, stretching. “Might as well go check if nothing else. Might be something good.”

“Mhm. Hey Gabe. You got something on your face.”

“Huh? What? Where?” he started wiping at his face.

“Here, I’ll get it,” Jack said and sat up. He leaned over and kissed Gabe on his sleepy mouth. “There, got it,” Jack said brightly. Gabe just gaped at him a little. The hamster was running but the wheel wasn’t moving. “What’s the matter Gabe, Meowth got your tongue?”

Gabe’s reply was to kiss him again. Jack grinned when Gabe pushed him back down into the bed kissing him on the mouth. His mouth tasted like sleep and not great but Jack was willing to forgive him because the kissing was good. “Hey, Jack?” Gabe said once he’d kissed Jack a whole lot.

“Yeah?” Jack asked, twirling his finger around the short hair at the nape of Gabe’s neck where his hair was starting to grow out again.

“Is it too soon to say I’m in love with you? Like I know we’ve only been officially a thing for like a month but—“ he petered out after that awkwardly.

“No, I don’t think so, if that’s how you feel,” Jack said, leaning up to kiss him lightly on the lips.

“Okay good. I didn’t want it to be awkward. Cause I’m in love with you and I’m really _really_ glad you visited so I could kiss you and tell you in person,” Gabe said and then gave into what he looked like he’d been wanting to do the entire time and kissed Jack again. Jack’s eyes closed and he wrapped his arms around Gabe’s neck when Gabe kissed him. It was more of that sweet, soft kissing that Jack was into. Then he stopped and sat up, “Okay, now before my mom comes back cause we’re not spending nearly enough time with the family,” Gabe sighed and got out of bed. Jack sat up, stretched, and followed him.

“I need to get Fish Food out of your pool and give him a bath,” Jack said. “We could do that to get out of being social.”

“I like the way you think,” Gabe nodded.

He opened the guest room door and they were assaulted by the sound of children and the football game still going on. None of it was as loud as it had been before but the volume was creeping up there. They went and checked out the dessert buffet which had rice pudding, about six different pies of pumpkin, apple, lemon, pecan and mixtures of that varieties, ice cream, a rainbow cake, and a pot of strong coffee. Jack had a bowl of ice cream with coffee on top while Gabe took three slices of pie and some rice pudding and they went and watched the football game. A lot of the men watching had passed out on chairs or the couch and there wasn’t a lot of room so they ended up on the floor. It was past halftime but the game wasn’t decided yet. The coffee perked Jack up some and he didn’t feel so tired. Gabe didn’t finish a lot of his pie and by the time they’d decided they’d watched enough football everyone was starting to get louder and the music was put on and the kids had woken up from their food comas to start running around again.

Jack collected Fish Food from the pool where he was swimming back and forth my himself. He wriggled happily in Jack’s arms even as Jack took him to one of the bathrooms and tossed him into a bathtub to rinse the chlorine off him. Really Fish Food did most of his own washing by splashing around in the shallow water. Jack and Gabe just sat on the side of the tub doing more of that excellent kissing thing again. Jack was really going to be sad when he went home and wouldn’t be able to just kiss Gabe whenever he wanted and he’d have to satisfy himself on voice and picture of his face alone.

After they ‘washed’ Fish Food they went back out to hang out with Gabe’s family. Really they all were very nice people who were thrilled Jack was visiting and dating their nephew/cousin/uncle. ‘Dinner time’ rolled around eventually and leftovers were heated up and everyone ate themselves stupid again but this time there no naps. Instead, Jack found himself in a game of Clue with Gabe, two of his aunts, and three of the little kids which seemed to last _forever_ because they always wanted to restart and play again when someone won. Jack did enjoy himself but he was glad when it got late enough for everyone to go home. Everyone left with food to take home and the house slowly emptied of both food and people.

Jack had a minute of privacy while Gabe was taking a shower. He popped Lucky out of her ball. He picked her up and hugged her. “Hey Lucky, we need to talk about some stuff.” Lucky cocked her head at him in confusion. “So, Gabe offered to let me have a thunder stone for you.”

“Pika?” she asked, still confused.

“He wanted to know if I wanted to evolve you into a Raichu and… well,” Jack shrugged. “I figured you should get to decide, you know? Do _you_ want to be a Raichu?”

“Pika pika?” she asked him again stretching up to put her front paws on his chest.

“If you did I don’t know if you could come as much back at school. Raichu are kinda big. The RA might say no so it’d just be Princesa and Chances allowed inside,” Jack continued. “But if you wanted to be a Raichu you’d be big and strong-

“Pii!” she rubbed her face against his face. “Pika pii!” Then she stepped back a little and stood on her hind legs, pulling on her ears with both paws so they curled a little like a Raichu’s did. “Pika!”

Jack still felt like a knot in his gut. “Oh, so you do want to evolve?” Lucky nodded and bounced up to his shoulder to nuzzle him, purring a bit. “Okay, I’ll tell Gabe,” he said. On cue there was a knock on the door. “Yeah?” Jack called.

Gabe opened the door and stuck his head in, “Hey, I just wanted to say goodnight before I went to bed,” he said.

“Oh… you don’t wanna stay?”

Gabe took the question very seriously. “We’re not having sex in my parents’ house. I’d never hear the end of it.”

Jack snickered, “I wasn’t thinking that. You just wanna sleep together. I liked that today when we took that nap,” he said.

Gabe opened the door more. “Okay— actually, hold on,” and he left, leaving the door open.

“Pii?” Lucky asked, looking at Jack.

“I dunno, he’s weird,” Jack shrugged. Gabe came back after a minute or so. “What was that?”

“Well my mom has been waking me up since I’m staying over. I didn’t want her to think I was kidnapped or something if I wasn’t where I was supposed to be in the morning,” he said as he closed the door.

Jack snorted and grinned when Gabe came and joined him on the bed. “Okay Lucky, time for you to go back in your ball,” he told his Pikachu. He wasn’t planning on doing anything naughty but he didn’t need to expose his poor, sweet, Lucky with the two of them making out. He popped Lucky back into her pokeball.

“Good choice,” Gabe said and pressed him back onto the bed, kissing him.

“If I didn’t love you you’d be so annoying, you know that?” Jack asked him.

“Lucky me then, huh?” Gabe smirked and rose his eyebrows at Jack. That made Jack laugh which was swallowed up by Gabe kissing him again. They ended up making out for a while- Jack learning what Gabe felt like under his shirt with his hands- before the full day caught up with them and they fell asleep under the covers all tangled up with each other. It was the first time in _years_ Jack had ever slept without Lucky around and he expected to sleep bad but really with Gabe pressed up against him he slept just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like the story or are excited about the update you should leave a comment. Even if to just say 'I love this story!' I appreciate all of them and let me know you appreciate me too.
> 
> ALSO you should def visit my [writing blog](http://shotgunsandstars.tumblr.com) for previews, whining, and other gay shit. Or my [regular blog](http://xazz.tumblr.com) for even GAYER shit.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a good chapter. I'm really not sorry at all about the AC cameo in it either lols. People who have been reading my stuff for a while might recognize what AU I pulled this version of them out of lols

His last day in LA Jack was down at the beach with Gabe and his friends. He had class tomorrow and was leaving later in the day to arrive back home just in time to get home and pass out for his early afternoon Monday class. Gabe hadn’t been wanted to be cooped out in the house the rest of the day so he’d suggested the beach. As promised several of his friends were down at the beach with Wishbone the Houndoom watching their stuff under the big umbrella. Jack let Fish Food swim around with the various other water pokemon everyone else had and was on the beach just out of reach of the waves with Altair’s little brother building a sand castle with their pokemon. Down the beach the rest of the guys not in the surf were playing soccer. Jack wasn’t very good at soccer and after playing a little and doing little but running back and forth and getting tired he went to find something more sedentary to do.

Desmond was a fucking sand architect with this castle they were building. Jack guessed he was about six or seven but he was going all out on this sand castle and was really just using Jack as cheap labor to fill buckets with sand. Jack didn’t mind. “Hey, earth to Jack,” Desmond said. Jack had been spacing out thinking about nothing.

“Hmm?” he asked, focusing again on Desmond.

“You done with that bucket?”

“Hmm. Oh, yeah, here,” Jack handed him the bucket and then got up and sat on the other side of the castle that was nearly as tall as the six-year-old. Chances and Desmond’s funny silver and red Chingling were helping with the structural integrity. Chances didn’t usually like others and got scared and nervous around other people that weren’t Jack if not distracted but he liked Desmond. Maybe because supposedly Desmond and Phantump were more the same age. Jack leaned forward on his elbows, just watching.

“Hey! Watch out,” Desmond cried when a group of pokemon came racing around them, kicking up sand and yelling or barking loudly. “Shoo! Shoo!” Desmond jumped to his feet and waved the pokemon away. The sudden arrival of so many new pokemon had also startled Chances and he ran back to Jack to be held and Jack wrapped an arm around his light form protectively.

Jack also leaned out a little and snagged Neapolitan by the collar. The Growlithe skidded to a halt, saw Jack and tail wagging slobbered all over Jack’s face with happy licks. “Heh, good boy. Herd these kids away. Go on,” he ruffled Neapolitan’s ruff and Neapolitan straightened up with new purpose. Then he started barking, tail up, and shepherded the rest of the pokemon away. All but one left. Lucky had realized he was here and scampered over to him.

“They don’t appreciate how delicate this is,” Desmond huffed and knelt back down by his sand castle.

“No appreciation for art,” Jack agreed.

“At least someone gets it,” Desmond said.

Jack just grinned as Lucky collapsed, panting onto his lap. “Having fun, girl?” he asked her. She nodded with some happy noises but looked like she also needed a rest. Lucky was a small pokemon after all. She couldn’t keep up with Neapolitan or Ace. Princesa didn’t even try and had passed out with Wishbone under the umbrella a while ago.

“Why’s Chances over there? I thought he was helping me,” Desmond said.

“He got startled by the others. Once he feels better he’ll help you again,” Jack said simply.

“Oh… why was he startled? He knows all of them.”

“He doesn’t like loud noises very much or too much excitement,” Jack gently pet Chances who was cuddled against his arm.

“Ohhhh. Like my big brother. He _haaates_ loud things and too many people and fun-“

Jack blurted out a laugh. “I doubt he hates fun,” Jack grinned.

“He never wants to go do fun stuff though,” Desmond huffed.

“Well maybe you and he just have different ideas of fun. Chances likes hanging with me while I’m at the library doing homework but Lucky here likes going out with me and my friends.”

“I guess,” Desmond allowed like he was doing his brother a favor. He went back to working on his sand castle with his Chingling Jack didn’t know the name of.

While Lucky power napped on Jack’s lap he thought about her some more. They’d only been out here an hour really and she was already tired. If she was bigger maybe she wouldn’t get tired out as easily? The knot about that damn thunder stone had been tightening all weekend after Gabe gave it to him on Friday. Jack knew Lucky wanted to evolve but Jack wasn’t sure if _he_ was ready for her to evolve. And what if she changed her mind? In his lap Lucky yawned and woke up, shaking herself a little.

“Hey, Desmond, watch Chances for me.” The boy looked up and Jack handed the Phantump to him and got up. Lucky hopped off his lap and cocked her head at him as he went to where Wishbone was guarding everyone’s bags. Wishbone was napping under the umbrella and when he heard Jack approach opened one eye to check that he was an Acceptable Human. Seeing it was Jack he closed his eye again and Jack grabbed his back and rummaged around in it. He pulled out the thunder stone. It tingled a little in his hand from the static radiation it gave off. He zipped his bag back up and went back over to the sand castle. Lucky was now helping Desmond while Chances was just sitting in Desmond’s lap.

When Lucky saw him come back over she hopped over to him. “Pika!” she climbed up his body to her usual perch on his shoulder. If she evolved she wouldn’t be a good shoulder pokemon anymore and Jack liked when she sat on his shoulder.

He sat down a bit aways from the castle, put the stone on the sand, and took Lucky off his shoulders to hold her in both hands. “Do you still want to become a Raichu?” he asked her. “You’ll be big and strong but… you won’t be little and easy to take places anymore.”

“Chu?” she cocked her head at him.

Jack set her down on his knee and picked up the stone. Her eyes brightened. “If you still want to evolve you can,” he said and held the stone in his palm but didn’t touch her with it. He wouldn’t _make_ her evolve. If Lucky wanted to be a Pikachu she could choose to be. Lucky looked up at him, her ears out a bit. She stretched out on her hind legs to rub her red cheeks against Jack’s face and licked his cheek and nose. Jack’s heart swelled a little. It felt like she was telling him it would be okay. Then she rubbed her head against the thunder stone and jumped off Jack’s lap as the energy from the stone shifted into her body.

Jack watched as the energy from the stone started to build up in Lucky’s cheeks and smiling she rubbed them happily which caused them to discharge into solid strands of electric energy that lanced through her fur. It swirled around her body as blinding white light that had Jack closing his eyes. Natural evolution wasn’t as drastic as this but Jack always heard that the use of an item caused a spectacular show when a pokemon evolved. There was a great sound of a thunderclap and Jack jumped back when a bolt of lightning jumped out of the clear blue sky straight into where Lucky was.

The light cleared. “Yo, Jack, you okay!?” he heard someone yell. Jack hardly heard them?

Jack liked to pride himself on the fact that he was a real guy’s guy (obviously, he was gay as shit) and as a real guy’s guy, did not ever scream (except when watching scary movies, which he only did alone so no one ever knew) but when the light cleared and he saw Lucky he admitted it; he totally screamed. In absolute joy! Lucky was standing there all dark brown fur, blue eyes and soft, rounded, yellow ears with white points and a soft creamy belly. She was also doing something most continental Raichu Jack had ever seen _did not_ do. Which was standing on her tail like a board that hovered a few inches above the ground. HOW?!

“Rai?” Lucky asked him, confused by his scream and slack-jawed stupor. “Rai!” she cried when Jack wrapped her into a great big hug. She hugged him back and Jack sagged a little, just hugging her so tightly. “Rai rai rai!” she said happily, nuzzling him.

“You’re so cute,” Jack told Lucky and his voice was thick. He realized he was crying a little.

“Raichu!” Lucky nuzzled him some more and licked his cheek.

“You’re the best Lucky ever. I love you,” he blubbered. Lucky just purred a little contently.

“Hey, Jack, Jack, you okay?” Gabe’s voice asked. He sounded out of breath. “What you screaming about over here?” Jack sniffed and rubbed his nose. No need for his boyfriend to see him crying over evolving his Pikachu.

Jack sat up, “Look at Lucky,” he said and showed Gabe.

“Woah!” Gabe cried and jumped back a little in surprise. He came and knelt in front of her, “Look at you,” he said and pet her a little. Lucky bounced a little at the attention from the both of them. Jack could practically see hearts appearing above her head. “I didn’t think you could get type variants like this so far from the region,” Gabe said, as shocked as Jack was.

“Now you see why I was screaming,” Jack said and was glad Gabe was looking at Lucky so he could wipe his eyes.

“Everyone thought you’d been hit by that bolt,” Gabe said.

“Oh. No. Just me freaking out,” Jack said.

“Rai, rai!” Lucky complained. She wanted them to pay attention to her some more.

Jack grinned. “Okay you needy thing,” he said and hugged her again which she was thrilled by.

“Come show everyone,” Gabe said. “Maybe one of these beach bums knows why she turned into a psychic variant.

Jack nodded and followed after Gabe to where the rest of his friends were sort of loitering, waiting to make sure Jack hadn't been hurt. They were all equally shocked by Lucky’s type change when she evolved but all agreed if anyone would know it'd be Malik. He was going to school for this exact thing. How and why Pokemon changed type when evolving or upon hatching and why it also changed their form. It had some sort of long name like Environmental Poke Variant Physiology or something but no one could quite agree what his exact major was. Needless to say, Malik was the resident Pokemon type nerd in the group. They were all very impressed by Lucky as well and that she could now fly and she got so much attention she actually discharged a bit of electricity which she was incredibly embarrassed about after the fact since it was something baby Pokemon did and she was not a baby Pokemon. Jack personally couldn't get over how cute she was. He had evolved her now so she could keep up with the other more evolved Pokemon while they were playing but honestly, he just wanted to hold and pet her a lot now. Jack was totally in love with her new psychic form.

Eventually, Malik did come out of the surf, his weird looking Mantine waiting for him where the water met the beach. “Okay, what the fuck? What was so important you guys sent three flyers out to come back in?” Malik asked, annoyed to being dragged away from his obvious girlfriend the ocean.

“Look at Jack's Raichu!” Mike said.

“Jack doesn't have a-- oh, huh, well that's interesting,” he said when he saw Lucky. Jack was holding her again and she was very happy about this. Jack honestly thought she'd decided to evolve because she knew she'd get so much more attention of she was evolved. Jack knew Lucky loved attention so that seemed pretty legit.

“You're the variant nerd, Malik, why'd she turn into a psychic variant?” Gabe asked.

“You just used a normal thunder stone?” he asked Jack who nodded. “Hmm. May I?” he asked arms out, indicating he wanted to hold Lucky for a better look. Jack handed her over and Malik looked her over. “Well, it isn't that weird. LA has a chance to cause spontaneous type change in Pikachu exposed to thunder stones upon evolution. It is pretty rare, though. I think last year UCLA started a study of testing why they do this specific variant which is almost exclusive to the west Pacific.”

“And?” Jack asked, taking Lucky back.

“Well… do you actually want to know?”

“If I say yes how long with this explanation take?” Jack asked. He had a feeling if allowed Malik would just talk about this kinda shit all day. Maybe that was why his fiancé was okay with him coming down to the beach so much. It was the beach or listen to Malik's ramblings about type variations. Admittedly it was an interesting topic but Jack could see how that could get long in the tooth.

Malik rolled his eyes. “Short answer is they don't know. Popular theory is because like the West Pacific there's a large population of surfers in LA compared to the rest of the continent so Pikachu react more to human culture than actual environmental triggers.”

“That's literally the shortest explanation I've ever heard you give. Good job, babe,” Altair said and knocked him in the ribs with a grin.

Malik rolled his eyes. “It is cool your Raichu became a psychic variety but,” he shrugged, “you kinda just got lucky.”

“Ayyye,” someone, Jack wasn't sure who, went.

Malik took a second. “I didn't intend that,” he said.

“I figured. But that's kinda Lucky’s thing. Doing crazy stuff on a fluke,” Jack said brightly.

“We done? This really didn't warrant dragging me out of the water.”

“For someone doing his masters on this , ou aren't even a little interested in it.”

“My focus is in marine Pokemon and the variation of Pokemon along the coast of California and how human habitation and impact on their habitat changes their visible features as well as typing. Not random type mutations,” Malik rolled his eyes again like they were all a bunch of plebeians.

“Yeah okay, babe, you can go before you bore everyone to death,” Altair needled him. Malik huffed and dragged Altair back out to where his Mantine was waiting.

“And I thought Gabe was a real ray of sunshine,” Jack said.

Mike snorted. “Gabe here is just a wanna be goth,” he knocked Gabe's shoulder. “Malik's a jerk.”

“Thanks for the ringing endorsement,” Gabe growled.

“I mean it isn't like it did anything for you. You got a cute boyfriend.”

“Coming from you that sounds like an insult,” Gabe said.

“Rai rai,” Lucky said, wanting Jack's attention again. Jack lifted her up a bit to nuzzle her and she made happy noises.

Eventually Jack let Lucky go to play with the other Pokemon and they decided to play football instead of soccer. Jack was into that. He could actually keep up with football. Everyone did tease Jack about being able to throw a perfect spiral pass but it was good natured. Lucky liked playing with the other Pokemon and they were amazed by her being able to fly now and she helped Princesa keep up with the other Pokemon too by letting the little Mimikyu ride on her tail.

Once everyone had tired themselves out towards the afternoon they had pizza delivered out to the beach, everyone chipping in to pay. Jack wasn't looking forward to leaving. This trip had been so fun and today had been so great. He leaned against Gabe's shoulder while he finished up his pizza slices. “Hey,” Gabe said and gently jiggled his shoulder.

“You wanna hang out with Wishbone for a bit after this?” Jack asked him.

“Uh n-- yes,” Gabe changed his mind when he saw the look Jack was giving him. Why the fuck was his boyfriend so shit at knowing things sometimes? He looked at ease when Jack was satisfied by that answer.

They finished the late lunch and Jack made an excuse about not being able to keep up in this southern winter sun and dragged Gabe with him over to the umbrella. Wishbone only glanced at them. Honestly Wishbone was the most chill and lazy Houndoom Jack had ever heard of in his life. He wondered if it had anything to do with the way the calcium carapace had grown oddly around its chest. Along with the backpacks and bags there was a big beach blanket spread out under the umbrella. Jack sat on it and pulled Gabe down with him.

“What's up?” Gabe asked and was surprised when Jack kissed him. Like really kissed him. Like the kind of kiss you wouldn't do in front of your group of friends with their kid brother around. “Oh … well that explains the looks you've been giving me,” he said dumbly.

Jack snorted. “As great as you are, you're really shitty at this boyfriend thing,” he teased Gabe and laid down on the beach blanket. It'd be less obvious they were just over to make out if they were laying down.

Gabe rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Ah, yeah, well…” Jack crooked a finger at him to come down here. Gabe flopped down next to him. “Sorry,” he said. “First serious relationship and everything, not great at it-

“Wait. Are you trying to tell me you've never dated anyone before? How?” Jack didn't get it. Gabe was so nice and sweet and handsome. How the fuck he honestly hadn't been in a relationship before Jack was mind boggling. Though when he thought about it he realized in all the years he'd known Gabe he'd never mentioned any boyfriend, ever. Hell, he'd come out Jack before he'd come out to his parents when they'd both been young teenagers figuring shit out.

“Because I was the weird metal goth kid in high school?” Gabe said.

“So?”

“And what's it matter anyway?” Gabe asked, starting to get heated.

“It doesn't,” Jack shrugged. “Probably better cause only a crazy person would wanna break up with you,” he kissed Gabe again and that eased whatever stress he was feeling about Jack's question. They ended up making out for a while, Jack's hand on Gabe's chest. Gabe was a good kisser. Jack was glad he was a good kisser. “Hey, Gabe?” Jack asked when they paused.

“Yeah?”

“I'm really glad you gave me that thunder stone,” he kissed Gabe lightly. “Lucky looks so cool and cute now.”

Gabe smiled. “I'm glad you're happy about it. I know you were stressing out about it.” Jack didn't tell him he was wrong. Jack had been stressing out about it.

“I love you.”

Gabe's face darkened a little bit, his cheeks almost red. “I love you too,” he said. Jack kissed him on the mouth again.

The kissing didn't last very long this time and after a few minutes Lucky floated over curiously. “Rai?” she asked.

Jack immediately pushed Gabe's face away, which made gabe give a grunt of protest. Jack wasn't about to do something in front of his pokemon. Let alone Lucky who was basically his baby. Which was funny since Lucky was a teenager in years. He sat up. “Hey Lucky,” Jack said. “Having fun with the others?”

“Raichu!” and she swooped a bit on her tail and then crashed into Jack's chest for cuddles.

Gabe grabbed his backpack and dug around for his phone before laying back down while Jack lavished Lucky with attention. “My mom texted me. She said we needed to be home for dinner since you're leaving tonight she doesn't want you to fly on an empty stomach,” Gabe said.

“Yeah?” Jack asked, arms around Lucky.

“Yeah, and it's four. We should start getting packed up cause the drive home ain't short with LA traffic.”

“Okay,” Jack sighed. “Let's go collect everyone,” Jack grabbed his empty pokeballs and got up. Gabe followed after him with his own pokeballs.

They found their Pokemon in a big, happy, knot of Pokemon playing with them. Except Kimmy, as usual, she was too cool for them. The other Pokemon seemed really down when Jack and Gabe called their Pokemon back into their balls. Then Jack went and found Desmond. The kid was in the shallows swimming around with his Mantyke and and Chances floating around his head.

“Hey, Desmond, I need Chances back,” Jack called out to him. “Chances! Cmon we're going home.” For himself Chances looked too nervous to float out over the water without Desmond as an anchor point and he worried around Desmond as the kid started swimming back to the shores. Once he was close enough Chances darted the last little bit from the surf to the shore and into Jack's arms where it was safe.

As Jack put Chances back into his ball Gabe came up behind him. “Okay, we got everyone? We ready to go?”

“I think… I'm missing Fish Food,” Jack said. “Desmond, you seen my Magikarp?”

Desmond looked thoughtful. “Last I saw he was hanging out with Lunch,” he said. “I can have Tiny go get him if you want. It might take a few minutes. Lunch usually goes out far when Altair let's him out.”

“Please. Me and Gabe are gonna go put our stuff in his car and come back and get him.”

“Okay,” Desmond said. Jack went with Gabe back to the umbrella as he heard Desmond say, “Tiny, go get Lunch.”

Jack and Gabe ended up getting distracted with putting their stuff back in the car with more kissing. Jack was very aware that he'd be leaving in a few hours and wanted to get as much kissing of his boyfriend in as possible before he had to go. Gabe realized the same thing because they spent a good five minutes delayed from going back to get Fish Food being very interested in each other's faces.“Didn't you say your mom would be pissed if we were late for dinner?” Jack asked reluctantly to remind Gabe they couldn't spend all the rest of the day sucking face. Jack wouldn't have minded but things bad to happen.

“Yeah. Go get Fish Food, I'll get the AC going.

Jack nodded and went back out to the beach to get his Magikarp. He had to wait a few minutes before Tiny came back with a very energetic Fish Food that splashed around excitedly when he saw Jack. “Fish Food we can't go home until you relax and get in your ball,” Jack laughed. He'd waded into the water by now to try and wrangle his flappy, slappy, happy Magikarp who wouldn't stay still enough for Jack to get him into his ball. Jack finally managed to get his arms around his Magikarp and walk him out of the water, popping his head gently with the ball. Up close Fish Food seemed more… gray? Healthy and definitely his Fish Food but kinda gray. He'd have it looked into when he got home at the school center. He said goodbye one last time to the others and went to get in the car which was cool when he got in. As soon as he buckled in the car backed out of its parking space and headed for Gabe's house.

Rosa put on a good dinner as a goodbye. It was just them in the house now. Gabe's big sisters had all gone back to their apartments or dorms. Dinner wasn't leftovers either, which was nice. Once dinner was over Jack finished packing his bag and spent the last few hours with Gabe. It involved a lot of making out, as one would guess, and soft feelings.

Finally it was time to go. Josh and Rosa were already asleep when Jack was to leave but he'd goodbye and goodnight and thank you about fifty times after dinner before they went to sleep. Gabe took him to LAX and it was surprisingly quiet. Most of the flights back home had happened earlier in the day and now it was quiet at the airport for the most part. At least quiet for LAX. It was still busy for Jack.

Gabe stayed with him all the way up to him having to go through security. The line was short so he could mostly just walk right up to the front. Jack hugged him before be went behind security. Gabe hugged him back tightly.

“I don't want you to go,” Gabe said softly.

“I know. Me neither. But I need to,” Jack said. Gabe made a noise like a complaint in his ear and squeezed him tighter. “Maybe you can come visit me during the winter break. Come see some snow.”

“Maybe. Sounds cold,” Gabe grumbled and Jack chuckled.

“Yeah but snow is fun. Pokemon love snow too.”

“Maybe,” Gabe said again.

They stayed like that a bit longer then Jack kissed him. “I need to go now. I love you.”

“I love you more,” Gabe said.

Jack laughed a little. “You can try,” Jack said, rubbing his nose against Gabe's. “I'll see you again. Don't get too down in the dumps,” Jack said with a grin.

“Yeah,” Gabe sighed. He kissed Jack one more time then let him go. Jack went through the line of security and looked back to wave at him. Then he was on the other side of security and needed to find his gate. As he was his phone went off. It was a text from Gabe. He laughed a little. It was just a series of all the crying emoticons. Jack sent back a string of heart ones and then turned and headed for his gate.

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have two Alolan Raichus on both my Moon and Sun games because real talk... Alola Raichu might be one of my favorite pokemon. It's JUST SO CUTE! I didn't even like the Pikachu line UNTIL I got my first Pikachu on Moon and _I got to pet it_. My lvl 100 Moon one is also named Jack, he's my sweet boy ;u;
> 
> If you like the story or are excited about the update you should leave a comment. Even if to just say 'I love this story!' I appreciate all of them and let me know you appreciate me too. Getting more of this AU directly related to comments not gonna lie okay. You want more pokemon crossover speak up and say something nice cause I thrive on positive attention.
> 
> ALSO you should def visit my [writing blog](http://shotgunsandstars.tumblr.com) for previews, whining, and other gay shit. Or my [regular blog](http://xazz.tumblr.com) for even GAYER shit.

**Author's Note:**

> All your nice comments from Love Ball are exactly why I wrote this next one so quick. It made my morning when I got to wake up to all of you telling me how much you love my silly AU :,D
> 
> If you like the story you should leave a comment. Even if to just say 'I love this story!' I appreciate all of them and let me know you appreciate me too.
> 
> ALSO you should def visit my [writing blog](http://shotgunsandstars.tumblr.com) for previews, whining, and other gay shit. Or my [regular blog](http://xazz.tumblr.com) for even GAYER shit.
> 
> English Translations:  
> “Hello,”  
> “Hello!”  
> “I was wondering, would it be okay if I took a picture with your Snorlax?”  
> “Eh? Tubs? He only likes pictures if he’s fed. He’s very grumpy otherwise.”  
> “Hmmm. Hold on,”  
> “I’ll have the Twosies, with extra cilantro on one of them and can I get two extra lemon wedges?”  
> “You got it. That’ll be seven dollars. Where you from kid? You got a wild accent.”  
> “Oh, I’m from Indiana,”  
> “Hey, hey, Jose, you hear that. This guy’s from Indiana-  
> “What? Bullshit.”  
> “Nope, I am. So can I take a selfie with your Snorlax?”  
> “Slow your roll, friend. Tubs only agrees to photos for a price. His favorite is corn baskets.”  
> “He’s a real bundle of sunshine, ain’t he?”  
> “Yeap, that’s why I like him,”  
> “Oh yeah? That your boyfriend?”  
> “Yeap!”  
> “Pft, good luck with that one, friend.”


End file.
